G-Force: Guardians of Space (2024)

G-Force: Guardians of Space was the second English-language adaptation of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, produced through the year of 1986 and first aired on TV in July 1987, followed by a full run on the Cartoon Network from 1995 to 1997.

This version skews closer to the Gatchaman source material than Battle of the Planets had, and had come about when Sandy Frank Entertainment wanted to market the license in a new way. However, Sandy Frank opted to not be directly involved in this production, and Turner Progam Services was left in charge of hiring people to adapt the series.

Fred Ladd and Norm Prescott (of Filmation fame) produced this adaptation through their company "Sparklin' Entertainment", with many name changes harkening back to Ladd's fondness for descriptive, pun-based names that he'd utilized in other dubs he had worked on (Gigantor, Astro Boy). The dubbing of the series was done in Los Angeles, California, and featured voice actors that had previously worked on dubs by Harmony Gold.

Overview[]

In 1985, Sandy Frank Entertainment was unable to negotiate contract renewals for networks to air Battle of the Planets, with many having long since lost interest and even the Atlanta-based WTBS having phased it out that year. A new idea emerged between Sandy Frank and Turner executives, to re-market the series under a new title. Henry Gillespie, the chairman of Turner Program Services at the time, would be in charge of contacting different studios and adaptation teams to create and pitch pilots for what would be called "G-Force". When each studio he'd offered the title to so far had produced pilots not to his liking or that Turner felt to be too expensive to greenlight for the quality, he would eventually contact Fred Ladd with the offer.

In Ladd's case, Gillespie presented him with the challenge to adapt not one, but two Gatchaman episodes as pilot presentations: episodes 18 and 87 were selected by Turner as being among the more difficult in their view, for having complicated plots and the most dialogue. Fred Ladd would manage to deliver upon the request, and within days of him submitting the pilots, his pitch at G-Force was approved and production on the show would start in the fall of 1986.

85 episodes of G-Force: Guardians of Space were bought by Turner for syndication, but only 5 aired when the series debuted on WTBS in July of 1987. The purpose for this short run was for Turner and Sandy Frank to have cleared a contractual agreement and to show proof that the series had aired in the USA, so this version could be licensed by other countries and dubbed into their own languages as Battle of the Planets had.

Cartoon Network, having found the series within Turner's program library, would give it a full airing life as part of their "Super Adventures" block, with it debuting on the network on January 2, 1995. G-Force would air in full on the network, and continue through reruns, up until it was dropped from the schedule after July 12, 1997 when the Super Adventures block ended. It would briefly and finally be utilized by Cartoon Network again for the Toonami Midnight Run in 2000, but would be dropped, presumably due to low ratings or interest.

Key Changes in the Adaptation[]

See also Name and terminology changes in G-Force: Guardians of Space for other characters and terms that appear in this specific localization

While G-Force generally stayed closer to Gatchaman, there were still many changes involved in the adaptation.

Name Changes[]

• Ken Washio became Ace Goodheart.
• Joe Asakura became Dirk Daring.
• Jun became Agatha June, usually referred to by the nickname Aggie.
• Jinpei became Peewee.
• Ryu Nakanishi became Hoot-Owl (due to his Bird Style theme), with the nickname Hooty for short.
• Dr. Kozaburo Nambu became Dr. Benjamin Brighthead.
• Director Anderson kept his name in some episodes, while other episodes had him named Commander Todd.
• Berg Katse was renamed Galactor (simply the name of the organization in the original), and stated to be an alien ruler from outer space.
• Leader X became Computor, an artificial intelligence that acted as Galactor's consultant and was described as being his shadow.
• Red Impulse kept his name, although his civilian name was never brought up in the actual show.
• The Science Ninja Team was renamed G-Force, as they had been in the previous adaptation. This was done to explain away the "G" symbol on their belts. Their G- designations were kept, although their Bird Style names were never brought up except for possible hints in the opening narration and with Peewee referring to himself once as "The Mighty Merlin" in an episode. Otherwise, it was common to see them referred to as "G-Force Agent 1", "G-Force Agent 2", and so on.

Excluded elements and other changes[]

• As mentioned above, Katse and X had their roles altered in this version. It is believed that this came about due to religious controversy surrounding the original English version and X being called "The Great Spirit". Some scenes with Katse and X were shortened, particularly him bowing to X.
• Inter-team violence was sometimes cut, such as the scenes of Jun being slapped, although other scenes of G-Force team members hitting each other wound up retained in full.
• While deaths of Galactor soldiers tended to kept in more often and they were referred to as being human, some sequences of the team beating them up were trimmed a bit. However, the description on the "G-Force" DVD release refers to Galactor as having an army of "androids".
• Deaths via firearms also tended to be cut down, or have dialogue added that suggested a character survived.
• The Devil Stars' deaths in episode 31 were softened by the team claiming that they were only "cyborgs", along with the death of Devil Star 2 (who was renamed "STAR-ONE").
• Another edit in episode 31 involved the entire removal of Joe Asakura's backstory. In the G-Force version, Dirk explains via a voice over that his parents were "almost" killed by Galactor, and the female commander references a failed assassination. However, a later episode in the run would reference Dirk's parents as having indeed been killed by Galactor, and show the previously-censored scene. It is also interesting to note that the scene where Dirk lies down and thinks he's hearing gun shots conveniently did not have the sound effects edited out.
• One notable edit involved the death of a king in episode 35, who had been impersonated by Katse. While in the original, the prince saw his father's skeleton and identified it by the ring on his finger, the G-Force version had the prince claim that his father had put his ring on a skeleton to let him know that he was safe and had escaped.
• Some non-violent sequences even tended to be trimmed slightly or entirely left out for time constraints, although sometimes narration by a character would sum up what happened in the missing scenes.
• Although the first Gatchaman two episodes that were dubbed (18 and 87) used a series narrator, other episodes usually had Ace or Dr. Brighthead narrating. This could be subverted in some cases, like when episode 56 had Aggie narrating about her ex-boyfriend Tony.
• Some names and terminology were inconsistent, such as Director Anderson keeping his name yet being referred to as "Commander Todd" in some plots. Hontwahl was also referred to as "St. Pierre" in its first appearance, but was called "Satania" in the two episodes that followed.
• This version did not get as far as revealing that Katse and the female commander were the same person. When the female commander did appear in this adaptation, she referred to herself as one of Galactor's most loyal followers. She was given the aliases "Ms. Tompkins" and "Veronica".
• A backbeat from the "G-Force" theme was utilized to fill all silent gaps within episodes, or to mask edits. Otherwise, the Gatchaman soundtrack was left intact, save for Episodes 18 and 85 (see below).
• Episodes 18 and 85 (Gatchaman #87) had their entire score replaced with one by Dean Andre, as they were the first two to be dubbed as test pilots for Turner to approve Fred Ladd's pitch. Andre was unable to re-score the other 83 episodes due to the dub having only three months to be completed. However, Andre did manage to make a completely new score for the broadcast versions of the pilots. The "pre-production" versions are available as an extra on Australia's PAL release of "Battle of the Planets".
• The title cards to episodes were left out, leaving the titles unknown for years until they were revealed via Usenet, The Sci-Fi Channel, and from those who had worked on the adaptation such as Fred Ladd himself.

Episode Order[]

85 episodes were utilized for G-Force, as it was deemed the appropriate amount for syndication and had been what Sandy Frank had previously used, however some also believe that Turner's budget only allowed for 85 to be dubbed.

Episodes 18 and 87 of Gatchaman were the first to be dubbed by Ladd's company, as a way for him to show Turner that the series could employ an adventure story as well as a character-centric one. However, they are still placed in their proper order in the actual episode listing, although they still contain a few differences when viewed alongside the rest of the series.

Episode 81 of Gatchaman was not adapted, and it was long believed this was due to the violence and religious themes present in it. However, the real reason had to do with Tatsunoko not being able to locate the simple English script for Ladd to use. Episode 86 was also skipped, as with the two pilots and the dub reaching episode 85, the production team had filled their quota of episodes to adapt.

Episode List[]

Unless otherwise stated, the episode order follows that of Gatchaman.

1. "The Robot Stegosaur"
2. "The Blast at the Bottom of the Sea"
3. "The Strange White Shadow"
4. "The Giant Centipoid"
5. "The Phantom Fleet"
6. "The Micro-Robots"
7. "The Bad Blue Baron"
8. "The Secret of the Reef"
9. "The Sting of the Scorpion"
10. "The Antoid Army"
11. "The Mighty Blue Hawk"
12. "The Locustoid"
13. "The Deadly Red Sand"
14. "The Rainbow Ray"
15. "The Giant Jellyfish Lens
16. "The Regenerating Robot"
17. "The Beetle Booster"
18. "The Whale Submarine (pilot #1)
19. "The Racing Inferno"
20. "The Mightiest Mole"
21. "Race of the Cyborgs"
22. "The Fiery Dragon"
23. "The Mammoth Iron Ball"
24. "The Neon Giant"
25. "The Rock Robot"
26. "The Secret Sting Ray"
27. "The ANIrobot"
28. "Invisible Enemy"
29. "The Project Called "Rock-E-X""
30. "The Attack of the Mantis"
31. "The Sinister STAR-ONE"
32. "The Giant Squid"
33. "In the Tentacles' Grip"
34. "Operation Aurora"
35. "The Sun-Bird"
36. "The Deadly Sea"
37. "The Particle Beam"
38. "The Dinosaur Man
39. "The Monster Plants"
40. "Those Fatal Flowers"
41. "Killer Music"
42. "Swan Song Prison"
43. "Human Robots"
44. "The Shock Waves"
45. "The Case of the Kalanite"
46. "The Deadly Valley"
47. "The Super-Z-20"
48. "The Camera Weapon"
49. "The Mechanical Fang"
50. "The Skeleton Curse"
51. "Wheel of Destruction"
52. "The Secret Red Impulse"
53. "The Van Allen Vector"
54. "The Vengeance"
55. "The Micro-Submarine"
56. "The Bird Missile"
57. "Battle of the North Pole"
58. "The Super-Lazer"
59. "Mystery of the Haunted Island"
60. "G-Force Agent 6"
61. "Dream of Danger"
62. "The Snow Devil"
63. "The Strange Strike-Out"
64. "A Deadly Gift"
65. "The Iron Beast"
66. "When Fashion was Fatal"
67. "The Proto Monster"
68. "Radioactive Island"
69. "The Devil's Graveyard"
70. "Mummy Mania"
71. "The Abominable Snowman Cometh"
72. "Plague of Robots"
73. "The Mammothdon"
74. "Secret of the Power"
75. "The Crab Robot"
76. "The Reverser Ray"
77. "Shock Waves"
78. "Battle on the Ocean Bottom"
79. "Stolen Identity"
80. "The Mind-Control Machine"
81. "Force of the Mega-Robots (#82)
82. "The Flame Zone (#83)
83. "Web of Danger" (#84)
84. "The Secret of G-4 (#85)
85. "Galactor's Deadly Trap" (#87, pilot #2)

International Versions[]

• A Spanish version titled Fuerza G: Guardianes del espacio was released in the late '80s, dubbed in the Latin American Spanish dialect. The names were translated rather literally, with Ace Goodheart becoming As Corazón-Noble. This version was broadcast pan-regionally in Latin America by Locomotion, due to it being owned by King Features/Hearst, as well as airing on Cartoon Network Latinoamerica and Boomerang. It would also later be aired in Spain on Canal 9 and Antena TV3.
• It aired in Brazil, where the team members' names were kept in their English versions. There were two versions produced; one for the VHS label Teen Action in the late 1980s-early 1990s under the title G-Force: Guardiões do Espaço, and a version aired on cable TV starting in 1995 titled G-Force: Defensores do Espaço.
• A Mandarin-dubbed version aired on ATV from 1989 to 1994, making it a rare time when an English-localized version of Gatchaman was sourced for a Southeast Asian territory and translated.
• It was aired in Poland under the title Zaloga G.
• G-Force also aired in countries such as Turkey and Sweden, though there is little to no available information. The English version aired in Russia, with Russian dubbing overlaying the English audio track.

Production Staff[]

Note: Due to the G-Force ending sequence not crediting the voice actors and other people who worked on the show, it is still unknown how many people were left unaccounted for in production. Due to the lack of proper credits, it has been debated if this was a union or non-union dub.

• Distributed by: Turner Program Services (1986-1995), King Features Entertainment (1995-2002), Sandy Frank Entertainment (2003-2007)
• Producers: Fred Ladd, Norm Prescott (uncredited)
• Voice Director: Fred Ladd
• Additional Music Composer/Music Editor: Dean Andre
• ADR Production: Sparklin' Entertainment
• Post-Production: Bruce Austin Productions
• Video Tape Editor: Kurt Tiegs
• Executive Producer (for Turner Program Services): Prudence Eddy

Voice Cast[]

• Ace Goodheart: Sam Fontana
• Dirk Daring, Red Impulse: Cam Clarke (all episodes save for 39 and 40)
• Agatha June, Peewee: Barbara Goodson
• Hoot Owl, Dr. Brighthead, Computor: Gregg Berger (episodes 1-60, 85/pilot #2), Jan Rabson (61-84)
• Galactor: Bill Capizzi
• Opening Credits Narration: Norm Prescott

Cam Clarke was unavailable for the recording of at least two episodes (the Jigokiller/Morpheus Plant two-parter), leading to his roles being filled in by another actor in the group (possibly Gregg Berger or Bill Capizzi) or somebody only hired for those specific sessions.

Gregg Berger quit the dub around the recording of episode 60, for reasons that Fred Ladd could not recall. Jan Rabson would take up the roles that he had voiced, and remain to the end of the series.

Spanish cast[]

• As Corazon Noble: Israel Magana
• Dirk Audaz: Jose Luis Orozco, Moises Palacios (episode 10)
• Agatha Junio: Mónica Serna, Anabel Mendez, Elsa Covian
• Avecilla: Herman Lopez, Eduardo Tejedo (episode 10), Ricardo Hill
• Autillo: Jorge Roig
• Dr. Mente Brillante: Arturo Casanova, Alvaro Tarcicio, Ricardo Hill (episode 44)
• Galactor: José Luis Castañeda (episodes 1 and 2), Jorge Roig, Tito Reséndiz, Eduardo Borja
• Computor: Jorge Santos, Alvaro Tarcicio
• Red Impulse: Emilio Guerrero (episode 11), Martin Soto (episodes 51 and 52), Herman Lopez (Galactor's disguise in episode 61)
• Anderson: Martin Soto (episode 15), Carlos Magana
• Lady Commander: Patricia Acevedo (episodes 31 to 33), Rocio Garcel (episode 46)
• Opening Credits Narration: Víctor Guajardo
• Additional Voices: Carlos Magana, Carlos Rotzinger, Eduardo Borja, José Luis Castañeda, Marina Huerta, Martin Soto, Narciso Busquets, Pedro D'Aguillón Jr.

Brazilian Portuguese cast (Cable TV version)[]

• Ace Goodheart: Reynaldo Buzzoni
• Dirk Daring: Paulo Vignolo
• Agatha June: Fernanda Crispim
• Hoot Owl: Luiz Sérgio Vieira
• Dr. Brighthead: Mario Cardoso
• Red Impulse: Dario de Castro
• Director Anderson: Waldir Fiori
• Galactico: Orlando Drummond
• Computer: André Bellisar
• Opening Credits Narration: Leonel Abrantes
• Additional Voices: Jorge Vasconcellos, Júlio Chaves, Maria Helena Pader, Mário Monjardim, Maurício Berger

This version was dubbed by the Rio de Janeiro-based studio Herbert Richers, and aired on Cartoon Network and Locomotion through the 1990s.

Media360 test pilot: "The Zol Intruders"[]

Before Fred Ladd's "G-Force" pitch, Turner had received a different pitch from The Media360 Group at around some point in 1985. Media360 was ordered to produce a pilot, but were purposely not provided with Tatsunoko's translation, in order for them to only rely on the visual content. They would be just one of various studios that Turner would contact, before Fred Ladd's pitch won out.

Media360 utilized episode 26, "The God Phoenix Reborn", and retitled it "The Zol Intruders". The pilot took 30 days to complete, and was produced by Steve Bell and Bill Anderson (who also created an entirely new musical score). The dubbing was done through an Atlanta, Georgia-based ADR studio called JBS.

This version was ultimately rejected, as Turner felt it would be too expensive to go with the company. The entire episode has never been released, presumably due to rights issues, though Media360 has shown the first few minutes as a sample clip on their YouTube account.

Name Changes in Media360 version[]

• Ken Washio was renamed Lucas.
• Joe Asakura was renamed Jason.
• Jun was renamed Rachel.
• Jinpei was renamed David.
• Ryu Nakanishi was renamed Quintin.
• Dr. Kozaburo Nambu was renamed Professor Nicholas.
• Berg Katse was renamed Commander Zol, and a Galactor commander that appeared in the episode became Commander Tiros.
• Ryu's brother Seiji was renamed Timmy.

Production Staff[]

• Producers: Bill Anderson, Steve Bell
• Voice Director: Bill Anderson
• Music Composers: Bill Anderson, Steve Bell
• Audio Engineer: Brad Jones
• ADR Production: JBS Studios
• Post-Production: Crawford Post Production
• Executive Producer (for Turner Program Services): Prudence Eddy

Voice Cast[]

• Lucas: Don Spalding
• Jason, Professor Nicholas, Newsman: Barry Stoltze
• Rachel: Faith Salie
• David, Commander Zol, Timmy: John Ferguson
• Quintin, Commander Tiros, Narrator: Doug Paul

Home Video Availability[]

VHS[]

• In 1989, the UK distributor Parkfield Entertainment released a limited VHS line of the series (the first under their Pick-a-Pic imprint and the others under Playtime Video), totaling at least 3 volumes with 3 episodes included on each. Volume 1 contained episodes 1 to 3, Volume 2 had episodes 4 to 6, while Volume 3 skipped ahead to have episodes 10 to 12.

DVD[]

• The first 6 volumes of the "Battle of the Planets" DVDs by Rhino contained one episode of "G-Force: Guardians of Space" on each disc, in total covering the first 6 episodes. The practice was stopped after volume 6, as Rhino planned to eventually give G-Force its own DVD release.
• "The Best of G-Force", released by Rhino in 2004, is to date the only USA DVD release of the series outside the BOTP volumes. It contains the episodes "The Racing Inferno", "Invisible Enemy", "The Sinister STAR-ONE", "The Dinosaur Man", "Wheel of Destruction", "The Secret Red Impulse", and "The Van Allen Vector".
• A PAL DVD of "G-Force: Guardians of Space" was released in the UK in 2003, and contains the first 3 episodes of the series.
• Madman Entertainment had intended to release a G-Force complete series boxed set in 2005, as a follow-up to their first Battle of the Planets collection. Unfortunately, due to a change-over in management at the company, this solicitation never came true and the DVD plans were axed.

Due to Sandy Frank's master license having expired in 2007, it is unlikely that any more of the series will see release unless Sentai Filmworks were to license and market it in some form; while they have the home video rights for Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and the Battle of the Planets localization, they have never licensed the G-Force version with them.